Veneto area and the history of furniture tradition

In the furniture field, Veneto area is reckoned at the national level like the cradle of wood furniture, appreciated all around Europe since the Eighteen Century; as a demonstration of the international interest for art wood furniture from Veneto, is the fact that during  the decadence of the Republic of Veneto, nearly the entire production of furniture of that time was sold back to European buyers.

A peculiarity of the  Venetian furniture is the fact that it was not, in any case, related  to a “court style”, as in Venice there wasn’t a proper court and indeed the Doge and other aristocratic used to bring their own furniture in the Ducale Palace or in the other public buildings at the time that they were elected, nevertheless it is also true that the monasteries in Veneto (like Saint Justine in Padua, the Frari and Saint George in Venice), the big cathedrals (Treviso, Verona) and later on the Seminars, developed their own different styles.

The city with the most ancient furniture tradition is certainly Padua: in Petrarch residence at Arquà there are some among the most ancient furniture ever realized in the Veneto tradition, which are of the same age as a sacristy closet, still now conserved in the Scrovegni Chapel and which dates back to the 1300; the second half of the Fifteen Century has experiences an increase in the furniture production, caused by the growth of the trade with the East and by the stay of some artists from Florence in the Veneto area, like Paolo Uccello and Donatello, who diffused the renaissance style in Padua area and in the surrounding areas.

Then the taste for inlay, engraving and the prestigious aesthetical styles  begun to spread over, first in furniture for religious buildings and then also in furniture for domestic use, becoming very common in the cities of Padua, Vicenza, Venice and Treviso; news story of that time say that in Venice “There is no person so poor that it cannot buy walnut chests and beds”.

Seventeenth Century was the year of the great success and of the acknowledgement of Veneto furniture creation even outside regional borders and was also the year of the orders by the rich bourgeoisie and by the Italian and European nobility: Mantua  dukes for example asked their ambassador to find just made-in-Venice furniture for their Palace.

Also the increasing importance of the feminine figure, pushed Veneto furniture industry to design and realize some furniture expressively dedicated to women’s world, as bathroom accessories, toilette furniture, small writing boards etc. ; then the fall of the Republic of Veneto had some recoils even on the furniture industry and on corporations.

‘900 in Veneto is characterized by a new producing method, that is the industrial furniture production: laboratories were often medium- small sized and that allowed to the old-school craftsmen to start again the production of the furniture excellence  from Veneto.